Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana High Court today deferred hearing on a petition seeking a stay on the screening of the controversial movie Messenger of God (MSG) starring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim till January 27.
The petition was moved by Kalghidhar Sewak Jatha (Mohali) seeking directions to ban the screening of the controversial movie in Haryana and Chandigarh. The petition was listed for hearing before a division bench of justices Hemant Gupta and Haripal Verma who directed that the petition be placed before the bench with which it was scheduled to be come up.
The petition was to be placed before a bench comprising justices SK Mittal and Dipak Sibal, but since it did not sit today as one of the judge was on leave, the petition came up before the bench of justices Gupta and Verma, which, however, deferred it to January 27.
The Mohali based Trust in its petition had claimed the movie’s screening would pose be a serious threat to peace and the law and order situation in the two states. Notably, the movie has already been banned by the Punjab government.
The petitioners had claimed that the protagonist Gurmeet Ram Rahim,had tried to project himself as a messenger of God in the movie though he was an accused in cases of murder, rape and sexual abuse of Sadhvis in CBI court.
The petition also objected to certain dialogues in the movie.